View of the city of Haifa - painting by Julius Rothschild (1885-1954) - Haifa, 1915.

A view of the ...

View of the city of Haifa - painting by Julius Rothschild (1885-1954) - Haifa, 1915.

A view of the city of Haifa, a painting by Julius Rothschild (1885-1954), the first painting teacher at the Bezalel Art Academy. Haifa, 1915.

Watercolor on thick paper. Signed and dated: "Haifa, 1915 / Julius J. Rothschild".

In the painting, a caravan of camels is seen on the beach, against the background of Haifa houses. To the left is the Technion in its first abode in the Hadar HaCarmel neighborhood.

Julius Jotham Rothschild (1885-1954), born in Germany, studied architecture and interior design in Berlin, and in 1905 graduated from art studies in Weimar. In 1906 he arrived in Israel, together with Boris Schatz and Ephraim Moshe Lelain, and was the first painting teacher at the "Bezalel" Academy of Art that was established that year. Following complaints from students regarding his professional level, Rothschild was fired from his job at "Bezalel" after about a year and returned to Germany, together with his wife Frida Kamnitz (daughter of Eliezer Lipman Kamnitz, owner of the "Kamenitz" hotel in Jerusalem).

In 1913, Rothschild returned to the Land of Israel, after studying architecture in Germany, and worked as a draftsman in the archaeological expedition to the Ha'Ofel excavations. Later he moved to Haifa, helped build the Technion, and worked there as a teacher. During World War I, he was appointed by the Ottoman government to be in charge of restoring ancient tombstones in the Land of Israel and Syria, and after the war he worked as an archaeologist at various sites in the Land of Israel.

For more information about him see: "The Portrait of 'Yaka' Ben Aliya the Second", Lavi Shai and Tina Yankelevich, in: At-Mol, Issue No. 194 (2007).

54x29 cm. Good condition. Paper slightly dark. Stains. A few tears in the left margin (slight, no damage to the painting).